This is my review of the LOS I'll make it short.But 1st it was a pleasure meeting Dave Beers & his family.Dave is the real thing,soft spoken & very knowledgable about cruise ships & cruise lines.
Ship.... Quite amazing & very big! To big for my liking.
Food...The usual Rcl fare
Ice show...Must see
Chops...Worth the extra cost
Beds...Excellent!
All in All a fun trip!
Now the not so good....
Purser's desk....needs big time help
Pools....not big enough for everyone
Windjammer.....somewhat confusing
I had the Presidential suite there were 8 in my party....Very nice!....but the soot from the ship's stack covered the deck each day...BAD PLANNING....But who cares...
Any ? please ask.

Originally posted by penny3333:
Welcome back papae, sounds like y'all had a great time. Better get back to planning your next cruise, it makes the pain so much easier to bear. Glad to have you back, we missed you.

All ready in the works..JOS in Feb...or.... & Don't tell anyone HAL'S Zuiderdam...Never been on a HAL ship.

Papae, thanks for your note. But the soot from the ship on your deck daily is not good at all. I appreciate knowing this because my clients, who pay Presidential Suite Prices would be very unhappy. I am so glad you didn't let it spoil your family vacation...it would have for some people!

Did you speak to the Cruise Director or Purser about this? Any RCCL response?

Thanks for the kind words, papae. And let me also say that papae is a lot of fun to be around. He has a great outlook on things and I very much enjoyed the chats we had aboard the LOS. Every time I saw Ed he was smiling and having a good time. Just don't bring up the subject of the beer he was supposed to have delivered to the suite!

I've been on both the FOS and LOS and they are the same. The LOS is a little more subdued in the decor area.

What can the CD or purser do about the soot? It is a design flaw. RCI knows about it but I imagine there is nothing that can easily be done until a shipyard refurb period - which isn't going to be anytime soon. We had similar issues aboard the Carnival Pride and Carnival Legend. It was normally there in the morning since they blew the stacks out overnight. The steward cleaned it up and we went on with our cruise.

The Guest Relations Desk on the LOS is a weak point. It was also a weak point on the FOS last year. In another note I mentioned how I got a song-and-dance by an assistant purser one morning, and our tablemate got similar treatment when she had a problem with the internet service. She ended up fixing it herself. Which leads to another big flaw - no dedicated internet manager. The purser has to handle it.

The Guest Relations Desk on the LOS is a weak point. It was also a weak point on the FOS last year.

Dave, that seems to be a growing issue industry wide. It's been a problem with the cruiseline's Corp Office policies off the ships for a long time. I'm really distressed that it's now working its way onto the ships as well. Their attitude seems to be, if your vacation is wonderful give us all the credit. If you have problems, whatever they are, don't bother telling us. We don't care to know and if you'll read our fine print on your contract, you'll find we're not responsible... even if we're responsible, it says right there we're not responsible. What a shame.